France is not a particularly dangerous place, even though "insécurité" is one of the main isues discussed during election campaigns. (A few tips for travelers to France are available here). However, after a few months in South Korea, I have realized how crazy safe this country is. This was confirmed by a simple google search :
Mind you, there is crime in South Korea. But I must say I'm always a little amused when I see that a shop-robbery or the arrest of a pickpocket are reported on the national 8 o'clock news. In France I guess such trivial events would hardly be mentioned in the local newspaper. When I met Her in the US several years ago, she told me that one thing she missed about Korea was being able to walk alone at night. And it's true that Korean streets seem to be very safe. CCTV is everywhere in Korea. I'm not a big fan of it, but I'm getting used to it, at least I'm paying less attention to it.
There's kind of chicken-and-egg question that bugs me : is Korea safe thanks to CCTV or is there CCTV in order to remain safe? In any case I have seen people do things here that I would never do in France, not even in my wildest dreams. Here again, the subway is a telling example. Apart from the fact that it seems everybody pays for the ride here, while it's really not uncommon to see people jump the turnstile in France, I'm not sure I would take out my brand new state-of-the-art smartphone or my laptop on a French subway train, that would be a one-way ticket to disaster. I also noticed a lot of people leave their bags open, when paying attention to pickpockets is my main concern when I'm on public transportation in France. This may explain why Korean tourists, and Asian tourists in general, are some of the French pickpockets' favorite targets. They may simply not be used to paying so much attention to their belongings.
In the above-ground world, I have seen equally unbelievable behaviours. In cafés, it happens that some people leave their bags, wallets, laptops and/or phones and simply go away for a while (sometimes for hours). And when they're back they'll find everything untouched! Or the other day at the supermarket. I saw a man who went to the restroom after doing his shopping. So he left his shopping-cart full of freshly purchased goods, plus his bag and his phone, unattended in a crowded hall for a few minutes. And of course, when he came back nothing was missing. Why go to the supermarket anyways when online shopping is so big in Korea? One of the main e-commerce companies is called Coupang. Well, when Coupang delivery men come to our apartment complex, which has a dozen different buildings, they take all the parcels out of the truck, put them down on the sidewalk, and then deliver them one by one, therefore leaving the rest of the parcels unattended on the sidewalk. To illustrate this, I looked outside our window five minutes ago and -bingo!- a few lonely parcels are waiting to be delivered. It's usually many more than that, though.
In the above-ground world, I have seen equally unbelievable behaviours. In cafés, it happens that some people leave their bags, wallets, laptops and/or phones and simply go away for a while (sometimes for hours). And when they're back they'll find everything untouched! Or the other day at the supermarket. I saw a man who went to the restroom after doing his shopping. So he left his shopping-cart full of freshly purchased goods, plus his bag and his phone, unattended in a crowded hall for a few minutes. And of course, when he came back nothing was missing. Why go to the supermarket anyways when online shopping is so big in Korea? One of the main e-commerce companies is called Coupang. Well, when Coupang delivery men come to our apartment complex, which has a dozen different buildings, they take all the parcels out of the truck, put them down on the sidewalk, and then deliver them one by one, therefore leaving the rest of the parcels unattended on the sidewalk. To illustrate this, I looked outside our window five minutes ago and -bingo!- a few lonely parcels are waiting to be delivered. It's usually many more than that, though.
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| Edit: Another one, one hour later |
The icing on the cake was when Her and I were looking for an apartment. We dropped by a real estate agency (as explained here) and the lady (who was the only person there) took us a few blocks away to visit one. When we left the agency with her and we mentioned that she forgot to lock the door, she replied that "it's ok, there's nothing to steal." (apart from a few computers and phones, maybe?)
This gives me a strange but pleasant feeling. I just hope I won't forget to get back into my old habits when I visit my home country. It could cost me dearly.
This gives me a strange but pleasant feeling. I just hope I won't forget to get back into my old habits when I visit my home country. It could cost me dearly.
